(04-11) 11:07 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- Lawyers for onetime gang leader Raymond "Shrimp Boy" Chow, the first target of an FBI investigation that led to the indictment of state Sen. Leland Yee, shed some light on Chow's planned defense Thursday, saying undercover agents "stuffed money into his pocket" after he repeatedly turned down their entreaties to commit crimes for cash.

"There's no law against accepting a gratuity," attorney Tony Serra told reporters. "It's not payment for anything at the criminal level."

He also said Chow has had little or no money since his release from federal prison in 2003 after a sentence for racketeering. "If he was a real gangster, he would have real money," said Serra, who, along with two other attorneys, is representing Chow for free.

Chow became the leader of a Chinese American association called the Ghee Kung Tong in 2006, and has been honored by the likes of Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Mayor Ed Lee for his work with troubled youth. But federal prosecutors say a five-year undercover investigation showed that Chow was running a criminal enterprise that trafficked in stolen goods and laundered money.

Array of charges

An indictment unsealed last Friday charged Chow with laundering $2.3 million, most of it offered to him by FBI agents, and with selling stolen liquor and cigarettes. Twenty-eight others are also charged, including Yee, who is accused of conspiring to accept bribes from undercover agents in exchange for political favors and with agreeing to import illegal firearms.

An FBI affidavit said agents turned their attention to Yee in 2011 by way of co-defendant Keith Jackson, a former San Francisco school board president and friend of Chow's who worked as a consultant and fundraiser for the state senator. Yee and Chow are not accused of any joint criminal activity, and Serra said Chow has had "no relationship whatsoever" with the senator.

The event at a North Beach law office shared by Chow's attorneys was billed as a news conference but was mostly a public-relations exercise, intended, Serra said, to counter prosecution efforts to "poison the jury well" with a sensational 137-page affidavit describing the alleged wrongdoing.

While staff members wearing "Free Shrimp Boy" T-shirts looked on, a video aired repeatedly of Chow's talk to a neighborhood group two years ago in which he extolled "peace and love," spoke of taking "the first step to turn our lives around," and referred to law enforcement's role as "part of our community to make the city safe."

Eli Crawford, who served prison time with Chow and now heads a youth-outreach group called Raw Talk for Life in the Fillmore district, lauded Chow for working for change in the black and Asian communities. "I will stand anywhere in the world with Raymond Chow," he said.

Selected quotes

Posted on signboards were quotes from the FBI affidavit in which Chow told an undercover agent to "stop doing illegal stuff" and that he "didn't want to know" about an unspecified crime.

Lawyers said the affidavit described 25 instances in which Chow turned down requests to commit crimes, including selling heroin, in exchange for money, and a half-dozen occasions in which agents thrust cash at him without any promise of criminal activity.

The affidavit also said Chow had "approved of" crimes committed by his organization, but the words were an agent's and did not directly quote Chow.

"That's their whole case in an nutshell," Serra said, describing it as unfounded. "He didn't approve. Whatever money was given was given by undercover officers."